December 18, 2012

Utah AG Finds New Home at Troutman Sanders in D.C.

After 12 years as Utah's
attorney general, Mark Shurtleff on January 7 will step down to enter private
practice at the Washington office of Troutman Sanders, the firm announced on Monday.

Shurtleff, who decided
not to run this year for a fourth term as Utah's chief lawyer, will join
Troutman Sanders as a partner in its regulatory compliance and government
litigation practice and state attorneys general team.

The Utah attorney
general wasn't immediately available for comment. But he said in a written
statement released by Troutman Sanders that leaving public service was a
"difficult choice" for him.

"But I am excited about the opportunity to join the country's
leading State Attorneys General team," Shurtleff said.

Troutman Sanders partner
Ashley Taylor Jr., who leads the firm's regulatory compliance and government
litigation practice and state attorneys general team, said in another written
statement released by the firm that Shurtleff's experience will "strengthen
and enhance Troutman Sanders' state regulatory expertise in a number of areas,
including privacy, data security, state consumer protection issues and matters
involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

Shurtleff toldThe
Salt Lake Tribune earlier this month that he would be a federal lobbyist
after he left office. But Troutman Sanders spokesman Mark Braykovich said on
Tuesday he won't lobby.

Prior to becoming
attorney general, Shurtleff was a Salt Lake County commissioner, an assistant
attorney general in Utah and an officer in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate
General's Corps. He also was an associate at the Law Offices of R.Q. Shupe and
Smith, Smith & Kring in California.